Berghain, Berlin’s Legendary Nightclub, Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary With an Art Show

Berghain, a dance club in Berlin's Friedrichshain district, is celebrating its first decade in business with "10," a group art show opening tonight.Credit Oliver Hartung for The New York Times

With its 10th anniversary approaching in December, the Berghain — Berlin’s most famous electronic music institution — is kicking things off tonight with a fine art prelude to a series of upcoming house- and techno-fueled celebrations. Titled simply “10,” the show takes place at the Halle, a vast section of the converted neoclassical power plant just beyond the dance floor that is open only on special occasions. Each work in “10” interprets the trinity of music, clubbing and debauchery in relation to Berghain’s potent architecture.

Contemporary art has always played an important role in Berghain’s identity: Works by Piotr Nathan are mounted on an entire wall of the club’s ground floor, Joseph Marr’s sculptures are installed under the counter of a glass bar and Wolfgang Tillmans’s large-scale photographs hang in the club’s offshoot Panorama Bar. What’s more, many of Berghain’s staff are artists and performers, and most of the nine participating artists in the current exhibition are current or former employees; some have chosen to reflect on the relationship between the club and their own practice.

The painter Norbert Bisky and the artist and musician Carsten Nicolai, whose experimental electronic music label Raster Noton hosts regular nights at the club, are among the more renowned names on the show’s predominantly German roster. Nicolai, pursuing his fascination with physical representations of scientific phenomena, cleverly evokes the club’s power-plant past with a subtle light installation that renders visible thermal movements of air.

Marc Brandenburg, a former Berghain barman, references the building’s present use. Based on photographs of the detritus left over from fetish parties in the men’s-only Laboratory space, the artist created intricate black-and-white pencil drawings that present free-floating motifs: a leather mask, empty Crisco cans, stainless steel toilets at the end of a long weekend. These tiny drawings are now being sold as temporary tattoos from a small kiosk inside the Halle.

Other works are grand in scale. A piece by Viron Erol Vert arranges screens, dividers and metal objects on high plinths, forming a maze not unlike the club’s notorious “dark rooms.” An installation by Sarah Schoenfeld features a large aquarium-like object filled with fluid, glimmering on the Halle’s ground level. The liquid is in fact urine, which has been collected for several months from clubgoers in large biohazard containers placed near the bathrooms. (To neutralize the odor, Schoenfeld has treated the urine with chemicals.) The fluid, because of its density and mass, gives off a deep red glow.

“10” acknowledges the many hallmarks of Berghain, from its elaborate sound system and imposing architecture and endless parties to its anti-elitist door policy, lascivious atmosphere and status in the dance music scene. But perhaps most importantly, the show pays homage to the community of artists and musicians that make the club more than just the sum of its spectacular parts.

Correction: August 11, 2014A earlier version of this post explained incorrectly why a urine-based art installation by Sarah Schoenfeld appears red. The color is naturally occurring, not due to the chemicals added to the urine.